Love in a Farewell to Arms

How does a World War I love story relate to facebook? A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway is the story of Henry, an American ambulance driver in the Italian army, and Catherine, a British nurse, who fall in love during World War I. Rather than facing their struggles head on, Catherine and Henry use their love as a shield from the real world. This is dangerous because when they are not together or thinking about each other, reality comes flowing back into their lives. Today, many people use this same tactic to hide from their own problems. A Farewell to Arms shows us the consequences of hiding from reality so that we can learn from the story of Henry and Catherine and deal with struggles in our lives. The war that surrounds Henry and Catherine is horrific; they both see terrible devastation all around them and begin to lose hope in humanity. When they meet, they are both looking for a way to distract themselves from the sadness and despondence in their lives. Catherine especially needed something to distract her from the loss of her fiancé in battle. The perfect escape is love. At first, Catherine and Henry pretend to be in love just to get away from their real lives. Henry even says, “God knows I had not wanted to fall in love with her” (XIV, 93). They fall deeply in love and create another world away from all of the death and destruction of the war. Henry eventually deserts the army so that he can stay with Catherine. Nothing seems to matter when they are together.Although falling in love under their circumstances seems remarkable, Catherine and Henry actually create trouble for themselves with their love. Instead of dealing with their problems, they create their own world where nothing bad ever happens. Unfortunately for them reality is not perfect, and no matter where they run trouble finds them. It seems in the book that every time Henry and Catherine think life is perfect and nothing could ever happen, something goes wrong to split...

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...Love and War Love is an unexplainable relationship between a man and a woman. The relationship can start one way and then transform into something completely different without warning. Each character in this novel has a different understanding of love. In A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway, the relationship between Catherine Barkley and Frederick Henry closely parallels Rinaldi and the priest's different views of love.
The character Rinaldi does not take love seriously; he is always in and out of love and always has many short-term flings. For example, Rinaldi is always looking for a new girl conquer, "That's nothing. Here now we have beautiful girls. New girls never been to the front before"� (Hemingway 12.) Rinaldi looks at girls and relationships as if they are a game that he can play. Girls to him are material possessions that he can keep as long as he wants, and then get rid of. Furthermore, Rinaldi can only see one facet of relationships, "Where did you meet her? In the Cova? Where did you go? How did you feel? Tell me everything at once. Did you stay all night?"� (Hemingway 11.) He can only see the physical and sexual side of his and others love affairs. He doesn't go deeper into what truly makes up the relationship, the feelings that a couple has for one another. In addition, Rinaldi is phony towards the women, he does whatever it...

...Bhaskar Lokanathan
American Literature
Ryan Martin
12/5/10
A Farewell to Arms: a love story
A Farewell to Arms by Earnest Hemingway is a novel that tells the story of strong, yet strange relationship between Frederick Henry and Catherine Barkley. Both are medical workers in the Italian military during World War I who fall in love soon after their first meeting. In the beginning, the love between the two seems fake and almost a game. Throughout the novel, Henry begins to develop a more serious love for Catherine, but this relationship is not a true connection between two lovers. Instead, the relationship is an escape from the war that helps the two get over their pasts. For Barkley, this escape helps her to get past her previous relationship and for Henry, it teaches him how to love and gives him purpose in life.
In the beginning of the novel, Henry seems to have no purpose in life. He is an American who came over to Italy to fight in a war just for the adventure. He extensively describes beautiful European landscapes that have been destroyed by the war. He is not fighting for any real purpose besides having nothing better to do. Furthermore, he spends most of his time drinking and going to brothels with his friend Rinaldi. This gives readers the impression that Henry is a lonely, almost depressed man with no true purpose in life.
When...

...A Farewell To Arms written by Ernest Hemingway illustrates a typical love story between two people, this love story plays out in a war torn Italy during world war I, where Italy was battling Austria, the novels main characters, lieutenant Fredrick Henry an American ambulance driver serving in the Italian army and Catherine Barkley an English volunteer nurse who served in Italy. The novel portrays Henry as a drunk who traveled from one house of prostitution to the next, he was not happy with his lifestyle. Henry feels detached from life and is on a quest for identification, he gives a particular insight about how he feels about women "clear, cold and dry". Henry loved to play the role of a womanizer. He is isolated from his family and compatriots. He is an American fighting a war in another country. In my opinion Henry is emotionally exhausted and it appears he has no place to go. Henry meets Catherine Barkley, near the front between Italy and Austria-Hungary. Catherine suffered during this war before she met Henry. Catherine had lost her fiancé during this war. She was startled by rain in her nightmares. She perceived rain as death. At first Henry wanted to seduce the nurse, to him it was a game, he had told the nurse that he loved her, but she had caught on to his game. Catherine confronted Henry and told him what she thought of his game. He was severely wounded on one of his runs. Henry was sent to the American...

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A Farewell to Arms Outline
Book 1 Chapter 1-6
I. Lieutenant Frederic Henry describes the horrible battle conditions of World War 1 in an Italian Village where he resides
A. Troops fight in nearby mountains
B. Rains in winter bring cholera killing 7,000 men in the army
II. Henry’s unit moves to a house in Gorizia in August
A. Life is peaceful
B. There are hospitals, cafes, and two brothels
C. Henry decides to go to a brothel since his leave is doubtful because of the heavy snowfall
III. Rinaldi asks Henry to come with him to meet Catherine
A. Henry was spellbound by her beauty and hair
B. He was unable to explain to her why he joined the Italian army as an Ambulance driver
C. She keeps a leather-bound stick as a memory of her fiancé who died in battle
D. Catherine is a V.A.D (Voluntary Aid Detachment)
E. Catherine and Henry express their love for each other
Book One Chapters 7-12
I. Henry drives back from his post and picks up a soldier with a rapture
A. Soldier is scared if he gets an operation he will be put back into combat
B. Henry’s plan for soldier: soldier will get out, fall down on road and bump his head, Henry will pick him up and take him to hospital
II. Henry prepares for possible attack
A. Catherine gives him a St. Anthony medal which he wears around his neck
III. Bombardment starts and blast comes through the dugout where Henry was
A. Henry thinks he’s dead but he’s not...

...Roxane Noffra
Mr. Livingston
06/11/2012
Task 2
In Farewell to arms, written by Hemingway, we can appreciate how the (Henry) protagonist grew due to his relationship with Catherine and his experiences in war. His growth represents a genre convention: a typical development in the characters, overall in the protagonists.
At the beginning of this book, Henry is characterized as being a drunken, womanizer fascinated with the nightlife; in fact, when he knew Catherine, he considered her just as another adventure, as the women he used to meet in the brothel. In chapter 3, it’s easy to noticed how Henry indulged the temptation preferring to drink and having fun with girls, just for pleasure, without getting involved in a serious relationship “ . . . and the strange excitement of waking and no knowing who it was with you . . .” (pag.13).
Through his best friend Rinaldi, Henry met Catherine, the woman that will influence his changed. She was a mature woman, a woman that had a fiancée who died in a battle before they could get married; In fact, she had a different perspective of war from Henry’s point of view, she was more realistic about it instead Henry was not even interesting in the war, he did not really know why he joined the war effort. However, as his experiences in war intensify, he became deeply pessimistic about the war. However, he realizes that his love for Catherine is the only thing he is willing to commit himself...

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November 5, 2013
A Farewell to Arms Essay: In Love and War
“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on” (Robert Frost). In the young adult novel A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, Frederic Henry, an architect who lives in Rome, falls in love with a British nurse, Catherine Barkely. Both Henry and Catherine find solace in each other during the war, which forms a relationship between them. Thus, the symbol of rain will prove the theme that love and war cannot coexist at the same time because it can become very deadly.
The symbol of rain conveys the theme that love cannot exist with love at the same time because it can be deadly. In the beginning of the novel, Henry gives a brief mention of the war describing the start of winter “[…] came […] permanent rain” and when the rain comes cholera comes too and “[…] seven thousand died of it” (Hemingway 4). In this passage, rain connects with death for the first time, but no emotional feeling connects to the fact that seven thousand men die. The rain is described here as permanent because it is inescapable and brings with it a disease that effortlessly destroys many soldiers. This sentence amazes the reader with a feeling of awe at the ease and swiftness with which the rain comes is very intimidating. The rain destroys the soldiers because they fight a war that does...

...﻿Paper #2
Hemingway bases most of his books on events that he has experienced. Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms is a book about war, identity, and individualism. His style of using in media res, character, and dialogue, and how he splits the book into five parts, changes the way readers interpret the book.
Ernest Hemingway lived through World War I and World War II. During World War I, Hemingway wanted to join the American army, but he was not accepted into it because of his eye sight. Since he wanted to help in the war effort, he moved to Italy to become a Red Cross ambulance driver. During this time, he was severely injured in the legs by enemy mortar fragments. His time in Italy influenced much of his book, A Farewell to Arms.
War is a reoccurring theme in the novel. The main character Frederic realizes more and more of how bad war really is throughout the story. One critic, Schneider, said, “War is not glamorized… Instead, it is presented in a very real and horrifying fashion from the perspective of the ambulance driver” (Telgen 179). In the book Hemingway wrote, “I wiped my hand on my shirt and another floating light came very slowly down and I looked at my leg and was very afraid” (Hemingway 56). At this point in the novel, Frederic starts to realize the realities of war. Another critic, Markley, said, “It’s still a game to him” (Bloom 174). Near the middle of the book, Frederic and his fellow soldiers retreat...

...﻿A Farewell to Fond Love and Abandonment of War
Course: Composition 1302
July 14, 2013
Outline
Thesis statement: Though war was the foremost thought in everyone’s mind love and passion between two confused, young people blossomed and flourished. The war was not a place to start a love affair, it took the lives of many not matter how much you begged. Just until this day the war became a shadow to transform to young boy into a man. He did this with a smile upon his face, a tear in his eye for each foot step he took he knew he had made the right decision about deserting it all for the two people he finally let his heart open up to.
I. The Reality of War
A. Wars Grim Secrets
B. Thy Loyalty, Separation and Togetherness
1. Growing up
2. Joining the Italian army
II. The Relationship between Love and Pain
A. Trust
1. Tragic loss and the will to love again
a. WWI claims a life of a nurse’s love
2. New found Passion
1. Frederic’s new beginning
III. Games of Love and Reality
A. Returning back to the war
B. Going through the motions and his emotions
C. Morphed into a gentler man
1. Kindness and compassion
IV. The Abandonment of all Fears
A. Connections
1. Family ties lost in wars when only son dies
2. Old friends depart
B. Taking extraordinary chances
1. Revenge and jealousy are explosive combinations
C....